Literary Protection Program
by Zeal Eternal
Summary: When Paige tries to repair the Book of Shadows with a spell, it backfires and turns the Book into a human. Can Piper, Phoebe and Paige fix this mistake before the Book is kidnapped by evil?


Piper, Paige and Phoebe burst into the attic, arms full of potions.

"Would it kill these demons to come after us at, say, noon instead of midnight?" Paige asked, exasperated.

"Actually, it would," Phoebe remarked.

"Alright. We've got the potions and the spell," Piper said to her sisters. "Now we wait."

The three stopped in front of the podium that hosted an open Book of Shadows and turned to face the doorway on the opposite end of the room.

"Any second now," Paige whispered.

It was then that Chris orbed in behind them.

"What are you three still doing up? It's almost one in the morning," he questioned.

The sisters jumped in surprise, and all three turned around to shoot him nasty looks.

"Haven't we discussed orbing in behind us like that?" Piper snapped. "What are _you_ still doing up?"

Chris had started to flip through the ancient pages of the Book. "Researching demons. What else?"

"We're still hunting the _last_ demons that you found for us," Paige reminded him. "You should take a break and get some sleep."

"Paige is right," Phoebe agreed.

Chris frowned. "But Wyatt-"

"Chris," Piper began. "We know that you're set on finding the demon that turns Wyatt evil, but we've vanquished _twenty demons_ in the past three weeks. I think we all need a break for once."

The Whitelighter suppressed a smile, but just barely. "OK, OK. You're right." He disappeared in a flurry of blue orbs without another word.

Piper stared after him. She narrowed her eyes. "Good night to you, too!"

"It's been asked a hundred times by now, but what is his deal?" Paige wondered. "I mean, the future he came from sounds horrible and all, but is that any reason to overwork himself?"

"He's just doing everything he can to stop that future from happening," Phoebe said.

"Yeah," Paige replied. "That's true. But still, I don't think one day off would hurt."

"With everything that's been going on, a day off might mean the end of the world," Piper observed, frowning slightly.

Downstairs, the grandfather clock that had been broken and repaired too many times to count rang out once.

"It's one o'clock," Paige called to no one. "You can attack us now!"

As if on cue, three shadowy demons shimmered into the attic.

"I can't believe that worked!" Paige said.

The creatures lashed out with long, black tentacles. Piper managed blow one tentacle up, causing the demon to growl with pain.

"Phoebe!" Piper yelled, watching one of the creatures zigzag towards her sister. Phoebe responded by trying to kick it; however, her foot went right through the shadow. It proceeded to grab her ankle and throw her onto her back. "Oh, no, you don't," Piper muttered, blasting the demon back as it prepared to impale Phoebe. "Potions! Now!"

Paige acknowledged Piper's command and orbed to the other side of the attic. She threw her two potions in unison with her sisters. The shadows almost didn't have time to react- _almost_. One of Paige's potions sailed through the shadows and landed squarely on the Book of Shadows, shattering and soaking the old book.

"That's not fair!" Paige cried.

"Don't worry about it," Piper said. "Spell now, Book later!"

"Right," Paige agreed. The sisters cleared their throats and began to chant.

"_Beings of the darkest night, leave us now and quit our sight; Shadows don't belong up here, so now be banished to the place you fear!_"

The demons suddenly caught fire. They writhed and lashed out until all three exploded in a shower of translucent black particles. The three women were silent for a moment.

"That was easy," Paige chimed.

Piper and Phoebe walked over to the Book of Shadows and observed it. It was completely soaked, and some of the ink on the page it was open to had started to run.

"In all these years, nothing like this has ever happened to the Book," Piper said. She carefully flipped one page to see if any damage had been done to it.

"It wasn't my fault!" Paige said, approaching the podium. "Those demons avoided that potion."

"I'm not saying it's anyone's fault," Piper revealed. "It was an accident. I'm sure this thing has gone through worse in its past. A little potion shouldn't hurt it."

The sound of crying wafted into attic from below.

Piper sighed. "All this fighting must have woken up Wyatt. I'll go put him back to sleep. Good night."

The eldest sister left the attic.

Phoebe yawned. "Yeah, now that those demons are gone, we can get some sleep. Don't worry about this, Paige. It'll be fine."

Phoebe, too, left.

Only Paige remained in the attic. She looked at the Book with a sorrowful expression. "I'm sorry," she said, as if the Book could hear her. "We'll get you all fixed soon." She turned to leave, but then turned back. "Or, I could just get it out of the way…" She thought for a moment. Then, she slowly cast a spell.

"_Running ink is never good, so keep it looking like it should; dry its pages, fix its writing; keep it always safe in hiding._"

Paige watched as the reddish stains that the potion had caused slowly melted away, and the ink that ran reversed course and returned to its proper location. She smiled. "There we go! Good as new." Satisfied with her work, she turned and left the attic for bed.

"Did we vanquish the shadow demons last night," Phoebe asked groggily as she sat down at the table for breakfast, "Or was that just a dream?"

"Pretty sure we did," Paige replied. She was already digging into a plate of pancakes and bacon.

"Yep," Piper said as she delivered Phoebe's plate. "We sure did."

"How are you so peppy this morning?" Phoebe wondered, watching Piper almost suspiciously.

"There's this magical potion called 'coffee.' Want some?" she asked.

Phoebe almost chuckled. "Yes, please."

"That reminds me. We've got to fix those entries in the Book that got vanquished with the demons," Paige remembered. "I'll get on that right after I'm done here."

"There's no rush," Piper assured Paige. "Like I said last night, it's fine. There wasn't that much damage done."

Chris orbed into the living room, then spotted everyone at the table and went to meet them.

"Morning," Phoebe said, smiling at Chris.

"Hi, Phoebe," he replied. "Did you get the demons?"

"Uh-huh," Piper reported as she placed Phoebe's coffee on the table. "And the Book, too."

Chris furrowed his brow. "What do you mean?"

Paige sighed. "I threw a potion, but it missed and landed on the Book of Shadows."

"What?" Chris nearly yelled. The sisters jumped back in surprise.

"Chill out, Chris," said Phoebe. "It was fine. We just need to rewrite some of it."

"'Fine?'" Chris repeated. He started to pace. "The Book of Shadows is the single most important magical artifact we- you- possess. If anything happens to it, we're finished." He paused and looked at the three women. "I have to go check on it." He orbed out.

Piper, Phoebe and Paige looked at each other.

"I can understand his concern for the Book, but why did he act that way?" Paige wondered.

"The same reason he doesn't want to sleep, probably," Phoebe observed.

Piper had just returned to the kitchen when there was a _thump_ and strangled yell from the attic.

"Chris?" Phoebe called, quickly standing up and heading for the stairs. Piper followed shortly, but Paige orbed herself up there.

When she materialized, Paige found Chris restraining another young man in a tattered green robe. The Book of Shadows was missing from its podium.

Piper and Phoebe entered the attic a few moments after Paige.

"Chris…? Who is that?" Piper asked.

In response, Chris pulled the robed young man to his feet.

"You tell me."

Chris turned the man around. On the back of his robe was a very familiar symbol.

The triquetra.


End file.
